A Smith

Brilliant and unashamedly geeky!

Reviewed: 08-08-17

Can't begin to describe how much I enjoyed this. This book is an unashamedly geeky love letter to the 80s in general and 80's video games in particular. If you are a child of the 80s who grew up playing video games you will love it. From the nerding out over game scores to the detailed descriptions of classic video games, this book makes no compromises to dumb down for a mass audience, and thats why its great.

After seeing the trailer for the upcoming film, I'm a little nervous that it will turn out to be a mindless special effects fest. Hopefully Spielberg won't totally lose the nerdy heart of the book in the translation to the big screen.

The narrator did a great job, but personally I would have preferred a British voice. Anyway thats nit-picking, this is fantastic and made me want to download an emulator and play some of those old classics!

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Great right up until the non-existant ending

Reviewed: 12-07-17

I'm conflicted on this one. I really enjoyed each of the characters stories (up until the last one which jumped backwards and forwards in time for no apparent reason so much that it was hard to follow), and I was expecting the stories to be linked together in some clever way by the end of the book. However the stories as far as I can tell are not linked at all (other than by the fact that the characters have all been to Hyperion before).

Then the book just ends.

Now I get that its the first of a series, but look at any of the great epic sci-fi series such as Foundation or Dune, and yes there is an ongoing story arc, but each book stands alone as a satisfying whole. This book reads like an introduction, there is no kind of conclusion, many questions are raised but none are answered, even partially. The Priests story in particular raised many questions, what are the cruciform lifeforms, how did they get there, how did they evolve, are they connected to the Shriek? I was hoping for at least some hints and answers by the end of the book, but there where none.

I am now conflicted about whether to continue with the series. On the one hand I want answers to the questions raised by the first book and as I say I did enjoy the book up until the end, however on the other hand I am so annoyed that the author made no attempt at a satisfying ending to this book I am reluctant to spend more time and money on the series in case I'm left with a similar unsatisfied feeling at the end of every other book.

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7 people found this helpful

Comprehensive and enjoyable nostalgia trip

Reviewed: 24-02-17

Incredibly thorough history of the home computer in Britain. While listening a couple of times I thought 'hold why hasn't he mentioned X'? Then the next chapter would cover that very topic in detail!

Makes the point that whilst home computers were originally conceive primary as educational and 'tinkerers' devices it was gaming that proved to be the 'killer app'.

Anyone who nostalgically remembers owning the mighty ZX Spectrum (or even one of its inferior competitors) will find this walk down memory lane a compelling listen.

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2 people found this helpful

Useful overview of world history

Reviewed: 25-09-16

A solid attempt at summarising a huge subject. Far from perfect, jumps around a bit to much for my tastes but still learnt a lot. Mainly that human history consists of enormous amounts of war, genocide, rape and slavery!

The author goes right up to the present day and attempts to cover the resurgence of Islamist 'jihad'. Unfortunately this is where his credibility comes into question as he appears to take the rather naive and simplistic view that its all the triggered by the West and the birth of Israel. He ignores the rather large influence that ideology has on the movement. After all it's not 'foreign policy' that causes people to kill cartoonists or to throw homosexuals off buildings!

The reader does a decent job although I found the slight 'sing-song' delivery a little wearing after a while.

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Ok but not as good as the first in series

Reviewed: 01-08-16

I enjoyed the first book. But this one just seems to be a never ending series of battles. Hard to keep track of some of the minor characters, someone would appear and the reader is obviously supposed to know who they are but several times I was left wondering who on earth are they again?

Not terrible, but not great.

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4 people found this helpful

Brilliant stuff

Reviewed: 05-06-16

Even though you kind of knew/suspected this kind of stuff was going on, it's still shocking the extent to which the exchanges are in cahoots with the high frequency traders to rip of their "customers". Unlike the events in The Big Short which can be 'excused' by greed and incompetence, the events described in this book are basically downright dishonest and fraudulent. The most shocking thing is they are still getting away with it...

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Good. But not as good as Flash Boys!

Reviewed: 05-06-16

Shocking and interesting stuff. Storytelling not as focused as Flash Boys. Hops around a little too much and it's too easy to lose track of who's who. But still essential listening.

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1 person found this helpful

Dissapointing

Reviewed: 09-02-16

As the author himself states, this book is not for everybody, well it's certainly not for me!

I loved The Name of the Wind and it's sequel and was looking forward to finding out more about Aurie, where she came from, why she lives in the underthing etc..
However none of these questions are answered, there is not even a story here. What there is is a glimpse inside the mind of a very strange girl with a really bad case of OCD, but with no background or reason for her being were she was and doing what she does I struggled to care.

The author says this book was written for himself. A less charitable description would be that it is self indulgent and boring.

I'm looking forward to the next proper book in the 'name of' series but I would recommend giving this novella a miss.

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Important stuff that everyone needs to hear

Reviewed: 01-02-16

The more informal conversion between the authors included at the end of this audio book is just as interesting as the book itself.

Essential listening for any who have heard the term 'regressive left' but don't understand what it means or why they are so dangerous as enablers and apologists for Islamist extremism.

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4 people found this helpful

Just superb

Reviewed: 05-06-15

I was a bit sceptical that a book about demons would too far fetched to be enjoyable, but this is the best book I have read / heard in ages. Well written, griping and surprising convincing portrayal of a fantasy world.

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